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Up to speed in a hurry
Meaghan Buisson on fast track
to speed skating team
by Scott Larson
The StarPhoenix
December
19, 2005 - Meaghan
Buisson of Saskatoon is trading concrete for ice, at least for the winter.
Canada's top
inline skater is taking a shot at long-track speed skating and the early results
are promising.
Egged on by
her coach, John Monroe of Regina, Buisson got her first taste on ice last March.
Competing in a Canada Cup event in Calgary, she finished 14th after only a few
sessions on ice blades.
Last summer,
Buisson competed on the World Cup inline circuit in Europe for the second year
in a row.
"It was
really dirty," she says. "It challenged me to look at what my definition
of sport is."
At inline
nationals in August, Buisson dominated, winning every event, from sprints to the
marathon.
In fall she
decided to change gears and focus on speed skating.
A new sport
isn't anything new to Buisson. Growing up, she dipped her toes in almost
every sport she came across, from track to equestrian to ringette.
Besides,
skating is skating right?
Not quite.
"My (speed
skating) technique is not the greatest," Buisson says, laughing. "And I
still don't know how to do corners.
"Strength
gets you only so far. You must have technique."
Buisson is
used to long training sessions on inlines, skating from Saskatoon to Aberdeen
and back, jumping road kill along the way.
Inline gives
her a marathon-type workout.
Ice skating
is an anaerobic sport, going hard while maintaining a consistent speed.
That's meant a couple of major changes to her training regimen.
She can't put
on inline skates until the spring. Buisson says her technique on inlines
is so ingrained in her muscle memory it is affecting her ability on ice.
Instead of
long skates to Aberdeen, she is now doing power sessions in gym and repetitions
of low walks and doing grueling sprints up Mount Blackstrap.
Buisson
started gaining experience on ice by spending a week and a half with Québec's
elite skaters at a training session in Milwaukee. Then she headed to
Calgary to train with Saskatchewan skaters . There 12-year-olds taught her how
to sharpen her skates.
Despite being
new to the sport, her times were too impressive to overlook and Buisson was
invited to participated in the Own The Podium (OTP) program. The program
is aimed at identifying athletes from other sports who could cross over and be
on the Canadian team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Buisson has
been to three OTP camps.
A fourth
camp, in January in Calgary, will determine who gets picked to train full time
in Calgary.
At a recent
meet she placed in the top four in the 1-, 1.5-, and 3-km events against 225
skaters.
It's taken a
while for Buisson to warm up, so the speak, to racing on ice. In inline
she competed against a team of skaters where there was a lot of bumping and
jostling. On ice it's her against the clock.
"I like
beating people," she says. "On ice it doesn't feel like racing."
Another
problem is Buisson has Raynaud's disease, causing her to lose circulation to her
extremities from the cold. You can tell it's her on the ice because she stays
bundled up until just before the gun goes off for her race.
That said,
Buisson is enjoying herself and looking forward to maybe getting government
funding to train.
With her
inline career, she got sponsors on her own - Peak Mechanical and Premiere Van
Lines - so she can continue.
"I'm an
inline skater," she says. "The challenge now is to figure out how to do
both."
© The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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